It's About Power
by Buffy Anne Halliwell
Summary: The First wants to end the Slayer's line, potentials go to Buffy looking for sanctuary and become an army to stop the First, but it's not enough; two Slayers and two Vampires with Soul team up to prevent Apocalypse.
1. Prologue

AN: The story starts during AtS season 4 (Salvage to Orpheus) and continues from BtVS Season 7 (Dirty girls) all through Chosen ending in a different way

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Prologue

_A woman speaks to her, holding a knife, not in a menacing way, just holding it, touching the edges with her aged fingers, "They are not for thee. They are for them alone to wield, one for each" the woman said not taking the eyes from the knife. Behind her, a stone was in plain sight, incrusted in it a shinny edge could be seen. "This has always been meant for you, no matter circumstances," the woman continued as she extended her arm as if giving away the knife. Another hand was reaching for it but before touching the knife's handle, everything went white with a flash of light._

With that Faith woke up, staring up at her cell's ceiling, the woman's words echoing in her mind. The rogue Slayer had been dreaming about that woman and that knife for days, the same knife the Mayor gave to her years ago.

The sound of a key opening a lock brought her out of her thoughts, "Lehane, your lawyer's here," a guard informed opening her cell.

Arriving to the visiting room, Faith frowned at the man waiting for her on the other side of the glass, holding a phone to speak to her. She sat down grabing the phone, "They told me my lawyer was here to see me. You my lawyer now, Wes?"

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The next couple of days had been hard. First escaping prison right after Wesley told her Angelus was free, then facing the Beast, after that fighting Angelus ending by injecting herself with Orpheus and traveling through Angel mind along with his evil alter ego.

She thought her job was done, she should probably go back to prison before being fugitive but things were just starting.

With Willow's help, the Angel Investigations crew was able to recover and restore Angel's soul; with the Beast and Angelus gone, the L.A. gang could take care of the rest allowing Willow to take Faith back to Sunnydale where she was needed now.

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Her reception at Sunnydale wasn't what she expected but at the same time it was just what she was expecting; they found a potential in the middle of the road, wounded; a crazy priest stabed and burnt her.

After leaving her in the hospital Faith went out to patrol, finding soon a girl being chased by a vampire: Faith punched the vamp who claimed that both were on the same side. Then Buffy came out of nowhere and punched her in the jaw; "Are you the bad Slayer now? Am I the good Slayer now?" were the first questions coming to Faith's mind.

Having cleared the misunderstanding, Buffy, Faith and Spike headed to the Summers' home. Teenage girls were everywhere; Faith felt she exchanged being locked in a prison full of dangerous women to being locked in a house full of teen girls learning how to fight and use weapons. Not really unknown turf for her but even that she opted for staying out of the way, training by herself, occasionally sparing with B.

Both Slayers' fighting technique had improved through the years. Each one with their own style, but fighting together, both techniques seemed to be a complement to the other. Their Slayer bond was still present.

One night, both Slayers were following a Bringer, they wanted to know where they were hiding. While following, they had a quiet conversation, Faith mentioned that she had been having dreams where a strange woman talks to her, and hands her a weapon. She left out the fact that the weapon was that certain knife.

Buffy listened to her with interest, "does that woman have long white hair? old fashioned white dressing?" asked after Faith finished telling her about the dreams. "Yea, sounds like her, friend of yours?" replied the brunette Slayer. "Not really, but I've had dreams about her too," confessed the blonde.

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Tbc


	2. Chapter 1

AN: Here you'd probably be thinking that so far it's the same story as the series, no big changes there, but after this chapter, things are going to take a different turn.

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The Slayer's conversation couldn't continue. The Bringer they were following opened the door of an old vineyard surrounded by more Bringers; Buffy and Faith decided to go and get the others instead of rushing inside; numbers were against them for the moment.

By the time they got back home, they could hear Rona complaining, ".. this plan is trouble. OK, Buffy doesn't care how many of us she puts in danger…" "Let me tell you something about Buffy. In fact, you should all listen to this," Xander cut her, nobody noticing both slayers opening the door and standing by the doorway listening. "Uhm, we kinda were," Kennedy pointed out. "I've been through more battles with Buffy than you all can ever imagine. She's stopped everything that's ever come up against her. She's laid down her life, literally, to protect the people around her. This girl has died two times, and she's still standing. You're scared? That's smart, you got questions? You should, but you doubt her motives, you think Buffy's all about the kill, then you take the little bus to battle. I've seen her heart, and this time… not literally. And I'm telling you, right now she cares more about your lives than you will ever know. You gotta trust her… she's earned it."

Buffy was touched by Xander's little speech, Faith was impressed by how the blonde has affected Xander's life, and for sure the rest of the scoobies' lives as well; the potentials were thinking about how hard yet how great being a Slayer is.

Soon, Buffy, Xander, Faith and potentials were armed and ready to take on Bringers and find whatever it is being kept in the vineyard; Caleb, the so called preacher that attacked the young woman found by Willow and Faith, claimed to have something of Buffy's, and she wanted to make sure to get it back in case he wasn't lying.

Caleb was stronger than he looked, there was some super human strenght in him. He easily took down Buffy, Faith, killed some potentials and even took Xander's left eye as souvenir.

The events after that weren't exactly moments to cherish and remember, the only bright side was that the hospital was doing good in business that night. All the potentials that weren't killed in the vineyard were wounded, Xander wasn't doing any better and Buffy couldn't confront him, she felt guilt eating her from inside out, she was so sure that they were going to won that battle and gain some points for war, but they didn't exactly lose, but if that was a victory it simply sucked.

The next day, Buffy went to pick up her stuff at the now abandoned Sunnydale High, found Caleb and got knocked out again. By the time she got back home, an impulsive Faith decided that it was a good idea to take all the potentials to the Bronze and Giles sent Spike with Andrew as tag-along to a mission, to find out more about Caleb.

Spike and Andrew were being leaded by a monk, the three of them walked up to a statue in an alcove, just as seen on the picture shown by Giles. The monk touched a secret lever, causing the statue to swing out of the way revealing a secret compartment behind it.

"Behind this," the monk explained, "he revealed something even we didn't know was here. A secret room." He walked in, followed by Spike and Andrew. "He was excited, talking the whole time... destiny, that sort of thing.

Spike took a look around, "yeah, we hear he's a real smooth talker."

The monk took a tapestry off the wall, revealing an inscription behind it, "he was going on about this ancient inscription," the monk showed it to the visitors.

"Neat," said Andrew while looking at it.

"He read it... and he didn't like what it said. His temper... He was the purest evil I've ever seen. He burned his mark upon me. And then I ran and I hid... and I listened to the others die."

"Running away...saved your life… What does it say?" Asked Andrew to Spike who took the candle from the monk to take a better look at the inscription which was in Latin words written with Greek letters.

"They are not for thee. They are for them alone to wield, one for each," he translated.

Back at the Summers' house, there was a yellow banner painted with "Welcome Home" in big red letters hanging over the fireplace. Giles, Dawn and the potentials were gathered in the living room as Buffy and Willow escorted Xander in the room followed by Faith and Robin who closed the door behind him.

"Oh, God," were Xander's first words, he wasn't expecting such a welcome.

"We didn't have time to do more, You have to pretend there's a big party here," Kennedy told him.

"That's fine. Parties in this house, I usually end up having to… rebuild something." There were some giggles about Xander´s comment.

"Welcome home, Xander," greeted Buffy "I wanted you to be here for this. I think you'll be interested in what I found out,"

"What did you find out?" asked Willow.

"it's about the cellar. Look, I know that night wasn't fun for any of us... but I figured out some things about that place, and I realize now what we have to do." Giles looks at her, concerned, "we're going back in," ordered with determination.

"Look, I know what you're thinking, but I had a visit at the school today from Caleb."

"Buffy, why didn't you…"

"I'm fine," cut her off "I mean, it wasn't fun, but I'm fine. I'm better than fine, I figured something out. He kept making all this noise about the school"

"Is it that seal again?" deduced Wood.

"Do we need to try shutting it again?" Willow wondered.

"No, that's just it… we've spent all this time worrying about the seal and the Hellmouth. Why isn't Caleb guarding them? Why doesn't he have someone there protecting it? Why is he camped out at the vineyard? The bad guys always go where the power is. So if the seal was so important to Caleb and the First, they would be there right now. They're protecting the vineyard or something at the vineyard. I say it's their power, and I say it's time we go in and take it away from them."

Xander shook his head, Giles sighed and the rest didn't show any enthusiasm at the idea.

"Or, in the alternative, how 'bout...we don't? I mean, it's a neat theory, B, but I'm not going back in that place, not without proof, and neither should you and neither should they," spoke Faith this time.

"I'm not saying it's gonna be easy."

"I think Faith had the floor," interrupted Wood not meeting Buffy's eyes. Faith took the chance to continue, "maybe it ends ok the way you wanna play it, but maybe it doesn't. And right now, I don't think I want you playin' the odds."

"Did you come here to fight?"

"Listen, we're fighters, all of us, but you gotta give me something to fight, something real, not…"  
"Windmills," finished Giles for her softly looking at Buffy.

"There is something there," answered Buffy trying to convince her former watcher.

"Maybe. But we can't be sure of that. This is a hell of a lot to ask."  
Nervously the slayer looked around, "I don't understand this. For 7 years, I've kept us safe by doing this, exactly this, making the hard decisions. And now, what, suddenly you're all acting like you can't trust me?" said with some pain behind her words.

"Didn't you say to me today you can't trust us? Maybe there's something there that should be addressed."

"Is that why you sent Spike away, to ambush me?"

"You know what? I am sick of your deal with this Spike guy. This isn't about him. This is about you. You're being reckless," snapped Rona.

"What?" asked Buffy stepping back.

"You are! I don't even know you, and I can tell! You are so obsessed with beating Caleb, you are willing to jump into any plan without thinking."

"You're right, you don't know me, so back off, and that's not what I'm doing," replied the blonde through gritted teeth.

"Well, that's how it feels to us. People are dying," intervened Kennedy, who turned and snapped at Willow when she called softly her name, "why are you always standing up for her?"

"I'm not," was Willow's soft answer.

"What do you mean, you're not?"

"With everything that's happened, I… I'm worried about your judgment."

"Look," Buffy looked around tried to remain calm "I wish this could be a democracy. I really do. Democracies don't win battles. It's a hard truth, but there has to be a single voice. You need someone to issue orders and be reckless sometimes and not take your feelings into account. You need someone to lead you."

"And it's automatically you," resumed the ex vengeance demon looking at Buffy, "you really do think you're better than we are."

"No, I…"

"But we don't know. We don't know if you're actually better. I mean, you came into the world with certain advantages, sure. I mean, that's the legacy. But you didn't earn it. You didn't work for it. You've never had anybody come up to you and say you deserve these things more than anyone else. They were just handed to you. So that doesn't make you better than us. It makes you luckier than us.

"I've gotten us this far…" said Buffy softly and hurt.

"But not without a price,"

Buffy looked at Xander, his words made her snap, she couldn't control her feelings anymore, she let herself go and talked harshly this time, "No, not without a price… I've been paying those prices ever since I was called, I lost the hope of living an average long life knowing that any day may be my last, I lost the capacity of loving fully because I fear consequences of it, I lost the will to go on because I felt I was living in hell," the rest remained quiet, no one daring to meet her eyes, "yeah I feel really lucky here," continued sarcastically looking at Anya before turning to look at each one of the scoobies, "this has been hard for all of us, we've lost to many things, and we've lost loved ones, friends, but even that, we're still here, we still fight. Look, I'm willing to talk strategy, ok, I'll hear suggestions on how to break this down, but this is the plan. We have to be together on this or we will fail again."

"We are clearly demonstrating that we are not together on this," determined Giles calmed and somewhat ashamed.

Commandingly Buffy continued, "Which is why you have to fall in line! I'm still in charge here."

"Why is that, exactly?" asked Rona

"Because I'm the slayer."

"And isn't Faith a slayer, too?"

Faith was thinking of what Buffy said, the bad guys always go where the power is, she knew that was true, she was caught off guard by Rona's comment, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. So not what I meant. I'm not in charge chick. I think B here needs to just...chill out for a little bit, take a siesta or something. But I'm not the one you want. I'm a Slayer, yeah, but I took bad choices, and who knows where I would be now if it weren't for B and Angel… and… I'm starting to understand your point B," she looked at her and continued, "the short time we fought together, I was the reckless one, I was the one ready to jump into fight at any time, and I didn't get why B here wasn't that way, she always wanted to think and wait before attacking… I thought everything was simple, vampire… stake… dust, but things aren't as simple as they seem, she may be right about the vineyard, but also I think we need a better strategy than just go and see what we can find, we need to be sure,"

Buffy thanked in silence for Faith's intervention, but still she wanted to go there as fast as possible, "we're running out of time."

The scoobies were starting to consider things from a different perspective, other than fear to face the unknown.

Kennedy, not knowing everything about what happened in the past wasn't as affected by Faith's words as the scoobies, suggested to take a vote on who they wanted to be their leader.

Buffy searched the faces of their friends, who were avoiding her glance because they were unsure of what to think, what to do.

Unwilling to waste more time Buffy decided to make things her way, if she was right about the vineyard she would bring proof, and if she was wrong and things would end bad for her, she knew Faith would take the lead.

"After you brought me home when the Ubervamp knocked me out, I heard you say that I was your plan… so it's your choice to follow the plan or…I can't watch you just throw away everything that … I know I'm right about this. I just need a little…" Buffy looked around at her friends, then her glance fell on the Slayer's emergency kit lying next to the weapon's chest, "…help," she trailed off walking to retrieve it, for a moment everything else seemed to disappear, she was only focused on the bag, "it's about power…" she said barely above a whisper, she hung the bag over her shoulder after opening the chest to grab some weapons.

Faith watched her digging into the chest, it was then when she saw something familiar, she saw the knife the Mayor gave her 4 years ago, her knife, she couldn't take her eyes off from it until Buffy closed the chest.

"Buffy…" Dawn tried to stop her sister when she walked away to the door, carrying the bag, stakes and a sword, but she didn't look back, she left closing the door behind her.

The scoobies weren't still sure if they should follow her or not, they still were thinking she was being reckless, Kennedy and Rona where happy at some point because of Buffy's departure.

Faith opened the weapon chest and searched for the knife, she felt as if something were attracting her to the weapon, something more than just the fact that she had been dreaming about it; even thought it reminded her of her dark past, she held it on her hands, staring at it, until she stuck it on her belt behind her back.

After a long while after Buffy left, potentials and scoobies were still at the living room, discussing strategies. Faith wanting to stay out of the way went outside to the back yard, twirling the knife in her hands. She was lost in her thoughts, and stayed that way for a while, until she heard Andrew's voice coming from inside the house.

"We're back!" Andrew put his helmet on a small table, "hi everybody. I missed you guys a lot. Sorry it took so long to get back from our mission… mission, but we had to wait out the sun. Well, I think our mission went very well. We rode on Spike's hog, which was very cool, and… played some amusing games, and, oh! We got some new information. You know what? I really need to urinate," with that last odd comment ended his babbling and walked out of the living room, being replaced by Faith and Spike.

"He's a breath of fresh air, isn't he? Thank god I don't breathe. So, I think we got a lead. Where's Buffy?" asked the vampire looking around at the group crowded in the living room.

Willow walked toward Spike, wringing her hands nervously, "while you were gone, we all got together and… talked out some disagreements that we were having… and eventually, after much talking…"

"She left," finished Faith abruptly, "she wanted to go back to the vineyard."

"And you let her go alone? She's gonna need some bloody backup if she runs into preacher boy," complained the bleached vampire staring at the group surrounding him, he could see guilt over the scoobies' faces, and indifference amongst some of the potentials, he let out a chuckle, "I get it, you're scared, is understandable, the boy lost an eye, that's gotta suck, girls died, and got a bunch of wounded, and you decide to stay here boo-hooing about it while the Slayer goes off to do what she always does."

"You don't understand…"

"You know, I think I do… Rupert"

"I do too G man" Faith added quietly but with confidence, "The slayer is supposed to fight alone, B broke that rule and let you all in, you all have a choice in the fight, you can run away if you want to do so, but she can't… it's our calling… not yours you're free or uncalled, whatever… it's about damn time for me to fully accept the slayer deal…" she turned around and walked to the door, Spike looked with hard eyes to the rest before following her.

Outside the house, Spike reached Faith.

"Where did she go?"

"She's probably at the vineyard bat boy."

Spike closed his eyes and smelled purposefully; catching the scent he's looking for walked down the street, Faith took a moment to realize what he was doing until she got it and walked with the vampire.

Inside the house, Andrew came back to the living room and saw everyone's confused looks, "what's goin on?" asked incredulously breaking the silence that fell when Spike and Faith left.

Giles evaded the question by asking him what did they find out in the mission, Andrew started narrating all that happened.

Meanwhile, in the cellar at the vineyard, Bringers were using welding torches and pick axes on a huge stone in a cave underground; the First, looking as Buffy, and Caleb checking on their progress.

"Is this going to do anything? Or is all of this just to make the Bringers sweat?... Do the bringers swat?" asked the first looking at them, then at Caleb.

"Actually, I think they pant, like dogs. And I don't know if this is going to do any good, but we have to try everything, it's a shame the other one got missing."

"You realize what will happen if the Slayer and her girls get them, don't you?"

"They won't, for what I heard, the other has been lost for years, and they won't put their hands on this one."

"That's right; they won't… because you're going to kill all of them and everyone they know."

"Hallelujah."


	3. Chapter 2

_I'm just remembering that i didn't put a disclaimer, did i?... anyway the disclaimer is "I don't own Buffy or Angel, they belong to Mutant Enemy and Fox and many people who i have nothing to do with"_

_For this chapter i still took some of the original scripts, changing it where necessary, soon Angel'll arrive and from that and on things will go in a different way than what happened on the show._

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After a long walk, and assuming that every house in Sunnydale was free for the taking; Buffy got into a stranger's home, not expecting to find the owner and much less an armed man. She easily disarmed him and let the scared man run away.

She put the slayer kit on a table in the kitchen; carefully taking out all the items. Having all the bag's contents spread over the table, she stood there staring at them for a while before taking the book, all its text was back there again, and luckily for her, it was in English.

Her eyes scanned through the words in the pages, but nothing was making sense, not because it was difficult, but because she was tired and her mind wasn't in the mood for reading. With a sigh she let the book over the table and went to the fridge looking for a drink. She only took a glass of cold water before go searching for the house's bedroom. As soon as she found it she laid down on the bed covering her body with her jacket.

Meanwhile, two blocks away, Faith and Spike were looking for her; they were relieved knowing that Buffy's scent wasn't leading them to the vineyard, which meant that she didn't throw herself into battle without backup.

Pushing the door of an unknown house open, Spike knew that Buffy was inside, and without any problem he could get inside, no invitation needed. Faith followed close behind.

Both saw the items over the table, Spike gave Faith a brief explanation of what that bag was and what happened the time they used the shadow casters.

Faith stayed in the kitchen, searching into the contents of the fridge too. Spike went upstairs looking for Buffy.

"There you are," said the bleached vampire standing in the doorway of the bedroom, "do you realize I could just walk in here, no invite needed? This town really is theirs now, isn't it?" he walked up to her "I was over there… your place, and everybody were so bloody scared. They're all about smiles and helping when you're on your feet, but the moment you're down, they're all about the kicking, isn't that right? Makes me want…" "they didn't kick me when I was down," she interrupted him, "well, at least I didn't give them time to do so, but the way things were going there, I felt I was on a trial or something… And it's not like they were wrong… Please leave."

"No, this'll change your tune. I came here 'cause I got something to tell you… you were right! Caleb is trying to protect something from you. And I think you were spot on all the way. I think it's at the vineyard... So? You were right… Buffy?" he called after getting no reaction at all from her.

"I knew that, and the others didn't believe me, didn't trust me, and I was right but… I don't feel very right."

" You're not fooling me."  
"What do you even mean?"  
"Well, you're not a quitter."  
"Watch me."  
"You were their leader, and you still are."BUFFY  
"Yeah… I am… I am the leader of someone who won't follow, a leader who isn't trusted, all I've done is give an order and several girls die"

"There's always casualties in war."

"Casualties… It just sounds so...casual. These are girls that I got killed. I cut myself off from them...all of them. I knew I was gonna lose some of them and I didn't… You know what? I'm still making excuses. I've always cut myself off. I've always… Being the slayer made me different, but it's my fault I stayed that way; people are always trying to connect to me, and I just slip away… You should know.

"I seem to recall a certain amount of connecting."

" Oh, please! We were never close. You just wanted me because I was...unattainable."

Spike kneeled in front of her, "you listen to me. I've been alive a bit longer than you, and dead a lot longer than that. I've seen things you couldn't imagine, and done things I prefer you didn't. I don't exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood, which doesn't exactly rush in the direction of my brain. So I make a lot of mistakes, a lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred plus years, and there's only one thing I've ever been sure of… you."

She looked away but he pulled her face to meet her eyes, "hey, look at me. I'm not asking you for anything. When I say, I love you, it's not because I want you or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You're a hell of a woman. You're the one, Buffy.

"I don't wanna be the one."

"I don't wanna be this good looking and athletic. We all have crosses to bear. You get some rest now," he walks to the door, "Faith and me can go out and see if there's any movement of the eyeless fellows."

"Faith? Is she here?

"Yes, she told the scoobies that they could run and hide but this was a fight and a calling… with more words… but she made it clear that she's on your side… so am I."

Buffy was thankful that at least someone supported her, not exactly the persons she thought would be with her, but her former enemies nonetheless, the persons who tried to kill her in the past and whom she tried to kill as well, are the ones now at her side, ready to go to war.

She personally wanted to go and thank Faith for being there, Spike followed Buffy downstairs, they looked in the kitchen but found it empty.

"There," said Spike pointing to the living room, Buffy walked passed Spike and found the rogue Slayer sleeping peacefully in one of the couches. It took only a slight sound to make her wake up.

"What is it, are we going looking for trouble with the First?" she asked sitting up putting her jacket on.

"No, Faith, not yet… I guess we all need some rest first," said Buffy. Hearing this, Faith went back to sleep.

Buffy turned to face Spike, "could you...stay here?

"Sure," he said looking at an arm chair, "that diabolical old torture device, the comfy chair, it'll do me fine.

"No, I mean... Will you just hold me?" she asked glancing at the stairs.

Spike nodded and both went back to the bedroom. Spike takes a place next to her on the bed, putting his arm around her. She curled up on him, cuddling up to his chest as he put his arm around her shoulder, holding her head with his hand.

Meanwhile, back at the Summer's house, things weren't going very well, everybody were trying to plan a strategy but there wasn't a single person in the living room who wasn't talking. Everybody were talking at the same time, each one giving suggestions but so far no one had come up with a plan.

It was Willow who raised her voice, tired of all the discussions, "Everyone just… shut up! We're all tired and we aren't getting anywhere, why don't we rest and early in the morning we'll go and search for that arsenal, with sunlight and everything."

Without much discussion everyone agreed, each one going to different parts of the house to get the much needed rest.

Early the next morning, before dawn, Buffy woke up and carefully got out of the bed trying not to awake Spike. She searched through the room looking for paper and a pen to leave Spike a note.

Having found it, she wrote the words "Thank you" in a small paper and placed it on a pillow next to Spike. She grabbed her jacket and went downstairs to wake up Faith; it didn't took long, in spite of the dark Slayer being sleeping so peaceful she was alert to any sound, it could be because of the current situation with the First or habit from prison, whatever the reason she was ready in a matter of seconds.

Soon, both slayers were walking in silence but with determination to the vineyard. By the time they got there the sun had already gone up.

A couple of bringers saw them approach, they tried to stop the slayers but they didn't have any chance against them. Buffy stabbed one with his own weapon, then she took it. Faith cut the throat of the other bringer with her dagger. Buffy saw it and Faith just shrugged.

"I couldn't get rid of it," said the blonde opening the door of the vineyard.

"What?"

"That knife, after we fought on that roof and I…" somehow she couldn't bring herself to say it, to admit that she hurt Faith. "and you pinned me and put me in coma," finished the brunette for her. "after that, I went back and took it, after you told me that the Mayor still had his human weakness… it was you, right? Or was it just a dream?" the blonde asked Faith who looked down the stairs of the opened door, after a beat she replied, "I remember, I was in your dreams… or you in mine, however that works, we were connected I guess," "Could be… anyway, I showed the knife to the Mayor, and after we defeated him I was planning on get rid of it, but something told me not to… it may sound weird but it was as if something was telling me to keep it… but I've never used it."

Faith gave a light smile, "Well B, I'm glad you did, I feel it… I dunno… it feels right, when I hold it, can't explain it, I feel as if I should have it…" Buffy stared at her but said nothing, she can't tell if Faith implied that she feels right with the weapon she used to murder, or if she indeed felt something else, after all, she sort of felt it too, otherwise she would had got rid of it as planned.

Both walked down the stairs, more bringers were waiting, but got knocked out. When both reached the bottom of the stairs, they saw Caleb, "I heard you got something of mine," said Buffy in a demanding tone.

Soon a fight started, Faith was fighting the bringers while Buffy confronted Caleb, she dodged his attacks as best as she could; she was more focused on looking around than fighting Caleb, she wanted to find what he was protecting, and then she saw it; a hatch on the floor hidden behind a couple of barrels, "Faith!" she called, when the brunette turned Buffy pointed to the hatch, "go! I can handle this," Faith replied, not even breaking a sweat from fighting the bringers.

Buffy punched Caleb in the face distracting him for a moment, taking the opportunity to go down the hatch. Caleb followed her as soon as the effect of the punch wore off.

Down the hatch Buffy fought two more bringers who were trying to free a weapon stuck in a rock. The Slayer looked at the shinny weapon in awe, something inside her was claiming the weapon.

"So...you found it," said Caleb from behind her, "not impressed, 'cause the question now, girly girl, is can you pry it from solid rock before I come over there…" she easily lifted it with one hand and looks it over. Caleb took a step behind shocked, "darn," he exhaled then tried to sound more casual, "now, before you go hurting yourself with that thing, why don't you do yourself a courtesy and hand it over now?" "Yeah? You want it?" teased Buffy hoisting the weapon up casually, "You don't even know what you got there," he replied taking another step backwards, "I know you're backing away." "You think wielding some two-sided doo dad's gonna make a difference?" Caleb tried to sound as if he didn't matter; behind him, Faith climbed down the hatch "B, are you ok?" she asked, Buffy smirked and waved the weapon menacingly at Caleb, "five by five" the blonde replied with some amusement. Between Faith and Caleb the First looking as Buffy showed up, "Let her go Caleb," she ordered arms crossed, "I said let her go," repeated herself after Caleb's hesitation, "If I let her go, she slices me open with that thing, or if she doesn't, the spare Slayer attacks me," he deduced. "No, they don't, they haven't got time, they have friends," Both Buffy and Faith look at her worriedly, "and their friends are in trouble… Witch go boom."

Buffy and Faith shared a look, Caleb's glance was still in the weapon in Buffy's hands, "I'm not letting them out of here with that thing," "Sure you are," responded the First, "Then you'll come back for it later… when they've got their backs turned.

Buffy and Faith ran out of the cellar, Caleb and the First watch them go.


End file.
